Divergent Timelines
by celticgothhardy
Summary: In other universes, it wasn't at Stanford.


For a prompt over on comment fic on Livejournal. I figured some might like to read it here.

_Chuck, Bryce/Chuck, five times they first met under different circumstances, and one time they never met at all._

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><p><strong><em>1. 1991, Connecticut<em>**

It was the beginning of a new school year. Chuck ran off after two of his friends after they started shouting at him. He was glad that his parents didn't decide to move to Burbank after all. He was so excited that he bumped into another boy his age, knocking a brown bag to the ground. "Sorry!" he apologized, trying to help by gathering the items.

The other boy, an inch shorter and carrying folders covered in Star Trek stickers, muttered, "It's okay." He accepted the help.

"I'm Chuck."

"Bryce."

He noticed the stickers and asked, "Kirk or Picard?"

Bryce snorted, "Kirk. Who else?" Chuck smiled and threw an arm around him before leading him to his other friends.

**_2. 1999, UCLA_**

For Ellies sake more than his, Chuck went to school close to home. He stayed with her, even though he thought she would have had a better time dating if he wasn't around as much.

He was at the football game out of some weird sense of involvement (he mostly blamed a girl in his class that wanted a familiar face around) when he ran into a pack of Stanford travelers. It was his unfortunate luck he was wearing one of three UCLA shirts that he owned.

Fortunate for him, they mostly ignored him in order to get to a truck serving burgers. All except one. "You know, you're lucky the rest of the guys were more hungry than annoyed," the guy told him.

"Yeah, yeah, I realized that." Erin was supposed to meet him by the E gate, but he couldn't spot her and he was getting antsy. He looked back to the guy that had lagged behind the others and _is he checking me out?_

The other guy smirked when Chucks eyes widened a little at the revelation. "There's a tailgate party that's hosting both schools for inner-school cooperation," he mentioned, "Wanna head over?"

_Fraternize with the enemy? What would Ellie think?_ He shook himself of the thought. _It's just talking to this guy._ "Sure. I'm Chuck, by the way."

"Bryce."

**_3. 2003, The Farm_**

Going to Harvard to be with Sarah had been a major mistake. She walked off with an older CIA operative and Bryce was left hitting everything in his way to release pent up anger. He was throwing himself against a bag when someone came up behind him. He didn't stop as he flipped the guy behind him and landed him on the mat. "Sorry," he muttered, not really apologizing.

"Nah, it's okay. I need to stop doing that anyway," he winced, picking himself up. "Quick question, are you Bryce Larkin?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"I-I was told to get you and a few others. Something about Omaha went wrong," he reported, "Wait, I wasn't supposed to say that out loud. Crap!"

"It's fine," he said, "If the project really is in trouble, it's better we step around the codewords." He started unwrapping the tape on his hands. The other guy just waited for him to finish. "Shouldn't you be gathering the others?"

"Uh, well, you're the last one, actually." He bit down on a smile that threatened to erupt.

"Well that's wonderful. You came to get me last," he bit off, ripping the tape forcefully. _Walker's already going to be there and she's going to rub this in my face._

"Well, you were concentrated on your practice that I..."

"Don't, just don't." He grabbed his phone and muted it before asking, "What should I call you?"

He debated for a minute before answering, "Chuck."

"All right, Chuck, where's the meeting?"

**_4. 2005, Italy_**

The CIA agent he was supposed to be meeting with was late. Chuck walked quickly through the crowd to try and find any sign of the agent while waiting for Dad (_Orion_ he reminded himself) to come back with the information from another source. He sat down at a table and waited for someone to walk by to order something. _Better not be a double cross like '03._ He ordered an espresso and kept a look out.

He had no idea what was going on when Dad pulled him out of high school and started talking about hiding from the government and something called Fulcrum. Now, he knew that something that he had done in the past was catching up with him and Dad wanted him to meet with an agent that was in on the Intersect project.

He threw those thoughts aside and focused on a man, _he looks like my age_, coming at him with plain intent. "I thought I was meeting with someone else," he huffed, sitting down.

"Things change." He noticed the two men that were searching the crowd. "You were tailed!" he hissed.

The other guy looked and muttered, "Shit!" Chuck grabbed his hand and started running through the crowd. Most parted as they saw the two moving quickly toward the hotels in the area. He shifted to run down an alley that had some cover. Approaching footsteps told him they hadn't lost them. The agent moved him so he was in full view but he wasn't. The look Chuck threw him said _I'm not your body shield._ He rolled his eyes, pulled him down and kissed him just as the footsteps hit the opening.

The surprise lasted for a nanosecond before he was reciprocating. The last relationship he had was years ago and he couldn't even get one-night stands to any sort of room before Orion stepped between them.

And the mere thought of his name seemed to have set him off because his phone started ringing and he broke the kiss and growled, "Yeah?"

"I can't get back tonight. The agent?"

"Here."

"Keep him around somehow. We need him to get into the project." Chuck couldn't keep the smirk off his face as he dragged the agent back to the room he lived in.

**_5. 2007, Burbank_**

Not going to Stanford hadn't hurt Chuck as much as he thought. However, the engineering degree he got from UCLA wasn't getting as many jobs as it should have been, so he was working the counter at the BuyMore until he could find a better paying job.

Right now, he was out with Morgan, who was trying and failing at talking up a blonde woman at the bar. A man slid up beside him and ordered a drink. "Is he yours?" the man (_He's my age!_) asked.

Chuck laughed nervously. "He's not.. See... Ugh..." He dropped his head on the table in exasperation.

The other man chuckled lightly. "So you're not with him?"

"No, nonononono, he's just a friend."

"Good, then I can buy you a drink," he smiled, waving over the bartender.

_Good looking, scratch that, fantastic looking guy and he wants to talk to me? There is a huge catch._ "Are you doing this because of my friend?"

"I'm doing this because I like you. And I think it would be more entertaining for the both of us not to watch your friend crash around my friend."

Chuck questioned, "She's your friend?"

"Yeah, she brought me out when I wouldn't leave my computer," he explained. "Bryce."

"Chuck. What do you do?" Bryce raised an eyebrow, which he added, "On the computer."

"Numbers. Not as great as I had hoped."

Chuck nodded, "I know the feeling."

**_+1 2006, D.C._**

Charles Bartowski was a legend in the Intelligence world. His fathers mind with his mothers abilities made him very well known. He scared the right people and won others. Sarah Walker, his last partner, didn't want to be paired with him anymore and other agents didn't either. He had become cold, ruthless and everything that his parents worked hard against. Ellie hadn't seen him since he graduated from Stanford and he didn't think twice about running the background of her latest boyfriend, instead of just trusting as others (Mom and Dad) had.

They probably ran their own, but he had to check himself.

Dad reluctantly worked with him as he became involved within the Omaha project. He was approached by someone almost as soon as it was completed. He promised to think about it, but his first reaction was to report the man to Langley as soon as possible.

The courtyard they had the meeting in was filled with people, but even this guy managed to stand out in the crowd. If Charles (it was more Chuck, the geek and nerd he left behind when he became Charles) didn't know any better, he would say the person was ready for a convention. The person was dressed as the Tenth Doctor with no Rose nearby and holding some weird mechanical contraption. He pointed it straight at him, which apparently started to get louder and louder as he got closer and closer to him. The man looked up when he ran into Charles.

"Oh hello," he greeted, smiling then turning serious as he fully took a look at him. "No, no no no no no. You're wrong."

"Excuse me?" he questioned, about ready to take the man down.

"You're wrong. Your timeline is completely screwed up. Something happened in the past, something that didn't happen but did or something that did happen that shouldn't have. Come on." He started walking toward an alleyway before he realized the person wasn't following.

He walked back and motioned for him to follow. Charles stopped him. "Who are you?" he inquired, tone low and threatened.

The man turned around and said, "I am someone that can see that something went very, very wrong. Now, we need to go figure out what that is."

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><p><em>And the last part's a crossover with Doctor Who. Actually, at one point I had this whole story idea based around it. I think it faded, hopefully. Review please, and thank you for reading.<br>_


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